Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan’s "The Karate Kid" sequel gets helmer

April 8, 2014 - 11:39 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - "The Karate Kid" sequel has found a new director in Breck Eisner who last served behind the lens for 2010's horror film "The Crazies". Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, and Taraji P. Henson are expected to reprise their respective roles in the second film, AceShowbiz said.

The first movie directed by Harald Zwart was a remake of the 1984 film of the same name. It followed a young boy from Detroit, Michigan who moved to Beijing, China with his mother and got involved in altercation with the neighborhood bully. Released in June 2010, it grossed over $359 million worldwide.

Zwart once said if he returned for the sequel, he'd rather do a new story than follow the existing "Karate Kid" story. "I personally think it's now so much on its own two feet, given the success, that it would be interesting to see where we could take it without ever thinking about the old ones," he explained.

The story for "The Karate Kid 2" is still unclear, but "Kung Fu Panda" scribes Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff were billed to pen the screenplay when the sequel was first announced in August 2010.